Cancer Tests Overview

Cancer diagnosis is a crucial part of getting the right treatment in a timely manner. A lot of diagnostic tests and imaging tests are used to understand if the suspected tumour is cancerous or not. Among cancer tests, the initial diagnostic tests are generally performed to confirm the presence of cancerous tumours in the body. These tests are generally blood tests that measure the presence of certain antibodies in your body or measure the level of various compounds or hormones in your system. While these tests can provide a thorough analysis of a person’s cancer risk, they can’t actually diagnose cancer independently without the use of imaging tests.

Why Are Cancer Tests Prescribed?

Cancer tests are prescribed both as screening tests to screen cancer risk in patients with a significant risk of the disease. The tests are also prescribed to patients who are suffering from varying symptoms, such as:

• Unexplained weight loss
• Fatigue and lack of energy to perform daily tasks
• Darkening of skin or yellowing of skin
• Presence of lumps on your body
• Pain around the lumps
• Fever that doesn’t subside easily with night sweats
• Unexplained physical pain

There are various other symptoms of cancer that are specific to the affected area. Be sure to check out the specific cancer test pages on our website to learn more about the symptoms that warrant prescribing specific cancer tests.

How Are Cancer Tests Performed?

Cancer tests are generally performed as blood tests. These diagnostic tests are performed by drawing blood from the veins in the arms of the patient and sending it to the laboratory for testing. A sterilised syringe is used to prevent the spread of any diseases.

Home Sample Collection

To help patients, we at Aster offer home sample collection services to ensure patients get access to reliable and affordable diagnostic testing from the comfort of their homes. The cancer test cost is kept affordable even for home sample collections to ensure patients can easily avail the required diagnostic tests.

How To Prepare For Cancer Tests?

There are no specific prerequisites for cancer tests. Although, you may be required to talk to your doctors regarding any medications you are currently taking before the tests. This is done to ensure that the test results are not skewed due to drug interactions in your body. A false positive test result can derail the diagnosis you need, leading to wrong medical treatments.

What Do Cancer Test Results Mean?

Cancer diagnosis test results can generally be used to understand your cancer risk and also identify the possibility of cancer in patients. For genetic tests, the presence of certain genes can mean a genetic predisposition to cancer. Other diagnostic tests can be used in response to symptomatic diagnosis and can be used to identify the underlying cause of symptoms. Without imaging tests it is difficult to diagnose cancer successfully.